After his Rwanda-backed M23 rebels captured Goma in late January, Corneille Nangaa strode into the city with the proud gait of a conqueror. He wore combat fatigues and a tactical helmet, a smile beaming through his thick, gray beard.
As M23’s new leader, Nangaa has emerged as the face of a new, more broadly ambitious insurgency called the Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC), or Congo River Alliance. The former government official has a jovial demeanor, but it gave way to a dark foreboding when he shared his vision for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Our objective is neither Goma nor Bukavu but Kinshasa, the source of all the problems,” he told Reuters. “In Congo, we have a weak state or a nonstate. Where all the armed groups have sprung up, it’s because there’s no state. We want to recreate the state.”
Thousands of residents filled Goma’s Stade de l’Unité on February 6. Some reported that M23 fighters forced businesses to close and threatened people into attending. The packed crowd gave the appearance of widespread support, as Nangaa spoke of the militia’s violent, nationwide revolt.
“Nangaa and his group say the endgame is to get to Kinshasa, but they need the support of the Congolese,” international relations analyst Justin Mwanatabu told Al Jazeera. “People will not support any plans to annex parts of the DRC. If he sells that agenda, people will say this is a plan by Rwanda.”
Named director of the DRC’s electoral commission by former President Joseph Kabila in 2015, Nangaa certified Felix Tshisekedi as the winner of the contested 2018 presidential election before being replaced in 2021. Multiple rifts with Tshisekedi’s government then led Nangaa into exile in Kenya. He resurfaced at a meeting of opposition and rebel groups in Nairobi in August 2023, announcing himself as the head of the AFC coalition.
Christian Moleka, a political scientist at the Congolese think tank Dypol, said that Nangaa’s transformation from clean-shaven technocrat to revolutionary serves M23’s and Rwanda’s interest in confronting Tshisekedi throughout the DRC’s vast lands.
“Nangaa’s selling point as the face of M23 is that he is from the Haut-Uele province and not Tutsi,” Moleka told The Washington Post newspaper. “This allows M23 to give itself a new, more diverse, Congolese face, as M23 has always been seen as a Rwanda-backed armed group defending Tutsi minorities.”
United Nations experts say Rwanda has deployed 3,000 to 4,000 troops in North Kivu province to support the rebel offensive. Nangaa has not denied Rwandan support, but Kigali continues to defy overwhelming evidence and insist it has not crossed into the DRC.
“M23 definitely started as a Tutsi movement, but look at the number of forces they are now deploying,” a diplomat told Reuters. “It is composed of many more different groups.”
The U.N. estimated that 3,000 people were killed in the siege of Goma, with thousands more injured. U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said the use of heavy weaponry in intense fighting between M23, the Congolese Army and allies on both sides has forced hundreds of thousands of people in the region to flee their homes.
“The Congolese people have been suffering terribly for decades,” he said, calling for international action to prevent a regional war. “How many more innocent lives must be lost before sufficient political will is galvanized to resolve this crisis?
“If nothing is done, then the worst could still be yet to come for the inhabitants of the eastern part of the country, but also in people living beyond the DRC’s borders.”
